Bottle closure



Dec. 14, 1937. J, c KEANEY -r AL 2,102,157

BOTTLE CLOSURE Filed July 22. 1936 iNv E oRs BY W 8M I 6 Maw/1m A TORNEYS Patented Dec. '14, 1937 PATENT, OFFICE Joseph 0.

some cnosoim Keaney, Mount Lebanon, and James MQGIIHII'IQ, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Application July 22, 1936. Serial No: 9139;

4 Claims. (01. zit-st) The invention relates to bottle closures, particularly to closures for bottlescontaining carbonated beverages. g

Soda'water, ginger ale and other carbonated 5' beverages are sealed under pressure in bottles for distribution, and in recent years there have been many persons hurt by accidental explosion of such bottles. Sometimes the bottlers are at fault. in initially-producing a dangerously high pressure in the bottles. and sometimes the store keepers or purchasers are careless, in allowing botties to stand in the sun or in a warm room, with the consequence and eflect that the pressure!!! one or another of the bottles becomes so great that the bottle bursts'or explodes. As already mentioned, many persons have been hurt in this way.

screw-type bottle closure which, normally serving hermetically to seal the contents of a bottle, operates asan automatic vent when pressure within the bottle becomes dangerously high. our in-- vention consists in a particularly effective embodiment of this concept in a. crown cap--a wellknowntype of closure widely used today. i

A In the accompanying drawing, Fig. I is a sectional view, showing fragmentarily the neck of a bottle. with a cap, embodying the invention in exemplary way, sealing the mouth of the bottle;

Fig. II is a view-comparable with Fig. I. illustrat- I ing how the gasket within the cap yieldsv in response to excessive pressure within the bottle and provides pressure relief through a preformed vent or recess in the gasket; Fig. III is a view in plane of the gasket; Fig. IV is a medial sectional view of the gasket;-'and Figs. V and VI are views comparable with Figs. III and IV, re-

spectively, illustrating a permissive modification.

to mouthof the bottle. Sometimes the gasket is in a manner familiar to the art, faced with a thin liner disk of impervious material, such as paper impregnated with a substance that is chemically neutral to the contents of the bottle. In recent 65' years aluminum foil coated with a baked couma- It has hitherto been proposed to provide a,

roneresin has proved successful as a material of which tomake such linerdisks.

In the embodiment of the invention herein illustrated, the compressible gasket] (faced with a liner. disk or not, as desired) is provided with 5 one or more peripheral V-shaped notches or recesses' 30. When the capis assembled upon the mouth of a bottle, and the periphery of gasket 3 compressed against the lip of the bottle, as shown in Fig. I, the bottle is hermetically sealed, with 10 the body material of the gasket at the point of the -V engaging the lip oi the bottle, as at id in v Fig. I, and cooperating with the otherwise continuous periphery of the gasket in providing the seal. When the pressure rises in the sealed bot- 5 tie, the body of the gasket is compressed upward I or outward against cap portion I, until ultimately the engagement of the periphery of the gasket with the bottle lip is so far opposed that.the body portion 3d assumes the position indicated on ex-' 20 aggerated scale in Fig. II; that is, communication is established between the interior of the bottle and the v-notch. Thus, gas is vented from the bottle into the notch, whence it, leaks, between the bead 5 of the bottle and the fluted skirt por- 25 tion 2;: of the cap, into the open atmosphere, it being understood that the clinched engagement of the skirt with the head 5 is not a hermetically tight engagement. Thus, the bottle is safeguarded against excessive internal pressures- 30 When the internal pressure is relieved, the body ofthe gasket expands and again seals the bottle.

By variation of the depth of the notch from. the periphery of the gasket inward, the cap may be made to respond to a given pressure in vent- 35 ing gas or fluid to the open atmosphere.

In refinement, the recess in the gasket may be formed as shown at I 0 in the gasketle of Figs. V and VI, and the body of the gasket at the base Ilia of the recess. may be chamfered or inclined, 10. as shown, to render the structure more accurately sensitive to given pressure value. That is, precision is possible--the cap may be adapted to vent the bottle at a predetermined pressure, or within a narrow predetermined pressure range.

It will be. understood that various modifications, refinements and elaborations of the bottle closure described above may be made without departing from the invention defined in the appended claims. Indeed, the above disclosure will enable the engineer and artisan to embody the in vention "inbottle closures of other and widely diversified sorts.

We claim as our invention:

1. A crown cap including a compressible gasket adapted to be secured in gas-sealing position upon the mouth of a bottle, said gasket as assembled in said cap including in its body a gas-venting recess which in service is normally sealed from the interior of said bottle and adapted automatically to communicate with the interior-0f said bottle in response to excessive pressure therein, substantially as described.

- 2. A safety cap for a bottle, said cap including a gasket, said gasket including a notch, said gasket in service normally sealing said bottle and adapted to yield in response to excessive pressure within the bottle, whereby said notch becomes a vent, the body of the gasket being deleted at the base of said notch to render it more accurately responsive to internal bottle pressures. 3. A crown cap including a compressible gasket adapted to be secured in gas-sealing position upon the mouth of a bottle, said gasket as assembled in said cap embodying a peripheral recess which in service is normally sealed from the interior of said bottle and adapted in responseto excessive internal pressure automatically to communicate with the interior of said bottle, substantially as described, said recess comprising a peripheral notch cut in the body of said gasket.

4. A crown cap including a. compressible gasket adapted to be secured in gas-sealing position upon the mouth of a bottle, said gasket as assembled in said cap embodying a peripheral recess which in service is normally sealed from the interior of said bottle and adapted in response to excessive internal pressure automatically to communicate with the interiorof said bottle, substantially as described; said recess comprising a peripheral notch of tapered form at its base.

JOSEPH C. KEANEY. JAMES M. GUI'HRIE. 

